Monday, February 4, 2008
Was it evil?
I like the discussion on the pursuit of knowledge, but I have a question; where do we draw the line when knowledge stops being good and starts being evil? It's not evil when doctors find ways to keep people healthy and give them longer lives. It's not evil when we find ways to save someone on the brink of death. What if they had only been dead a second, and we did whatever Victor did to bring them back to life? Is that wrong? We use defibulators to restart hearts, and most people have been taught CPR; isn't that kind of like bringing back a life? If we knew how to save someone who died at the scene of an accident an hour before, would it be evil to bring them back? What about bringing back to life someone you loved who died a year ago? When does it stop being okay? It's not just Victor that's "playing God" since we prolong lives unnaturally and save people that should have died. I guess I'm not entirely convinced that what Victor did was really evil, since it's only a step or two away from what we do now and consider good.
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3 comments:
Good point. But keep in mind that this was written in the 18th century and the kinds of preservation of life would have seemed crazy and on the verge of immoral. I am not aware of how medicine advanced to where we are today, but maybe things that saved lives like that were considered almost immoral as well. It would be interesting to look into.
I also think back to the poem at the beginning of the novel, where the created is questioning the creator, asking what right the creator had to make life. I think that the evil in Victor's actions is creating a life, then abandoning it to a miserable existence. I believe that everyone on earth made the choice to come here, so at one point we knew the trials and blessings we would experience. The creature had no choice; Victor made the choice for him, but then didn't take responsibility for his decision.
I don't believe that what he did was evil, either. Everyone draws their own line on the difference between good and evil based on our parents, our beliefs and on societal influences. Victor created life and that was not a bad thing. He was experimenting to advance his knowledge of science, which also isn't a bad thing. Although he did desert the creature, his original intentions were good. He wanted to help mankind, and he didn't really destroy it or create something evil. The monster killed out of rage, just like any other murderer on earth. It's true that Victor should not have deserted the monster, but I think that was just a part of the story. It wouldn't be a scary story to tell in the dark if he had befriended the monster from the beginning.
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